Photo: REUTERS / copyright
China has ordered the largest quarantine it has had for an entire city since the covid pandemic began-19 in that country more than two years ago.
The city of Shanghai, of 25 millions of inhabitants, will be under confinement in two stages for nine days, a period in which the authorities will carry out tests for covid-19 to each person.
As a major financial hub, the city has battled a new wave of infections over the past month, even though the number of cases is not high by some international standards.
Until now, the authorities have resisted quarantining the entire city to avoid destabilizing the economy.
But after Saturday registered its highest daily number of cases since the pandemic began, the authorities seem to have changed course.
There were 2.631 new asymptomatic cases, which represented almost the 60% of China’s total new asymptomatic cases on Saturday alone, and more 17 new cases with symptoms.
The city divided in two
The confinement will be carried out in two stages, with restrictions on the east side of the city from this Monday and until April 1, and on the west side from April 1 to 5.
Public transport will be suspended and companies and factories will have to stop operations or work remotely, authorities said.
The city government posted the instructions on its WeChat account, asking the public to “support, understand and cooperate
with the work of prevention and control of epidemics in the city”.
Other lockdowns during the pandemic have affected entire Chinese provinces, although people are often still able to travel within those regions.
But Shanghai, because due to its high population density, it is the largest entire city to have been placed under quarantine to date.
This is the commercial capital of China and, according to some calculations, the largest city in the country.
But now it is one of the hardest hit areas as China struggles to contain a resurgence of the he riant ómicron, leading to a large increase in new cases.
Until now, the authorities had said that the port and the financial center located in the east of China must continue to function for the good of the economy.
The phased approach of this confinement means that half of the city will remain active.
Millions of residents in other cities Chinese have been subjected to city-wide restrictions, often after a relatively small number of covid cases-19.
The “zero covid” policy
The recent increase in cases in China, although small compared to some countries, it is a major challenge for the “zero covid”
strategy that China has undertaken .
Government orders swift lockdowns and aggressive restrictions
to contain any outbreak.
The policy distinguishes China from most other countries that are trying to live with the virus.
But the higher transmissibility and lighter nature of the omicron variant has raised questions about whether the current strategy is sustainable in the long term.
Some Shanghai residents have complained about the endless cycles of tests, suggesting that the cost of the “zero covid” policy has become too high.
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